Chapter Six.

Lexy struggled to keep a lid on her anger as she stomped back across the street to her own bakery. The back door hung open and she bent down to inspect the area around the lock, now covered with black fingerprint dust. She'd have to call someone to have it replaced right away.

"How did it go? Did she confess?" Cassie stood in the doorway eyeing Lexy and Davies excitedly.

"No, she denied it. Claims she has an airtight alibi," Lexy said rolling her eyes.

"I'll be checking that out today," Davies said. "In the meantime, you guys are free to clean all this up and get back to business as usual. We dusted the lock for fingerprints, but I doubt we'll get anything from it."

"That's all you're going to do?" Lexy stared at Davies.

"Well, since there was nothing stolen, there's not much for us to do." Davies looked at the broken door, then out into the back parking lot. "We'll try to figure out who broke in, but unfortunately, in the grand scheme of things, this is going to be a very low priority."

"But what about the ring?" Lexy asked.

"We'll keep that as evidence while I check out Caraleigh's alibi." Davies looked at her watch. "I gotta run, but I'll try to swing by tomorrow with an update."

"At least she's not quite as abrasive as she was the last time you had to deal with her," Cassie said as they watched Davies retreat to her car.

"Yeah, but it doesn't seem like she's going to be very helpful," Lexy added.

"She'll come through once Caraleigh's alibi doesn't pan out," Cassie said.

"Will it not pan out though? Caraleigh seemed pretty confident."

"But we know she did it-"

The bells jingling on the front door interrupted Cassie, and Lexy's spirits picked up. "Sounds like we have a customer!"

The girls rushed to the front room. Lexy felt a minor tinge of disappointment to see Nans, Ruth, Ida, and Helen come through the door instead of the throng of paying customers she was hoping for.

"Did I just see the police leaving here?" Nans asked.

"Yes." Lexy told her about the break-in and their suspicions it was the bakery owner across the street.

"What makes you think it was her?" Nans asked.

Cassie and Lexy exchanged a sheepish glance. "We kind of heard her say that she needed to get in here."

"Kind of?" Nans' brows creased as she eyed Lexy.

"We took a little trip over there last night to peek in her dumpster and heard Caraleigh and some man talking."

"Oh, that sounds exciting." Nans' eyes sparkled. "I wish you'd called me to go with you."

"So, did you tell Davies you overheard her?" Ida asked.

"Well, that's the thing." Lexy sighed. "We really can't tell her because then we'd have to reveal we were sneaking around back there and it could make us look suspicious. As it was, Caraleigh accused me of planting the ring to incriminate her!"

"Oh, the nerve. Now why did she think you would do that?" Helen asked.

"I wouldn't." Lexy answered. "But I did find out something else interesting."

"What?" The four ladies chorused.

"Her dumpster was loaded with boxes from the grocery store bakery. I think she's just loading her cases up with purchased goods."

Helen gasped. "That scammer! I knew her stuff didn't have that home-baked taste of a small bakery!"

"But why would she do that? And why break in here?" Ruth asked.

"Well, they went through the cookbooks and recipe files, so I assume they were after recipes." Lexy shrugged. "Great-grandma's scone recipe is still there, thankfully."

"Wait a minute; if she's buying the pastries at the grocery and putting them in her case, then why would she need recipes?" Ida asked.

"That's a good question," Helen said to Ida as she picked out an herbal tea from the self-serve station. "There's something funny going on in Denmark."

"Denmark?" Ruth looked at Helen. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Just an expression, dear."

"So, how about we try out some of those scones?" Nans said to distract Ruth and Helen from the argument they were teetering on the brink of.

"Oh, right. I baked some yesterday and I'm trying a variation this afternoon." Lexy stood and started toward the kitchen. "It would be great if you guys could try both and let me know which you prefer."

In the kitchen, Cassie had already cleaned up the recipes and was busy mixing up the dough for peanut butter cookies. Lexy inhaled the comforting, sweet, nutty aroma that hung in the air as she piled some scones on a platter for Nans and the other ladies.

"I figure I'd do some baking and keep the cases stocked with fresh cookies ... for when the customers come back," Cassie said.

"Yeah, I'm sure sales will be back to normal as soon as the sewer project is done and people can actually get to the store," Lexy said. "I'll watch the front room and you can bake, then this afternoon we'll switch."

"Sounds good." Cassie returned to her mixing. "Oh, and I called someone to fix the lock."

"Perfect. Thanks." Lexy shot Cassie a grateful smile, then took the platter out front and placed it on the table in front of the ladies. She grabbed a coffee while the women each picked a scone and loaded it on their plate.

"I made these scones to put in the bakery case, but I don't think too many customers will be coming in to buy them," Lexy said ruefully.

"Oh now, dear, I'm sure that's not true," Nans said. "Once the big sale is over at the other bakery and the people get a taste of how stale her baked goods are, they'll be back here."

"Especially after they read my article," Helen said.

Lexy pulled a chair up to the table and sat. Wrapping her palm around the warm mug of coffee, she reveled in the refreshingly bitter aroma steaming up from the mug and glanced across the street at the line of customers in the other bakery.

"I sure hope so." Lexy turned her back to the window and leaned her elbows on the table. "Let's talk about something else."

"We're making great headway on our display for the bicentennial," Nans said scooping a chocolate chip out of her scone with her fork. "In fact, we've dug up the most fascinating piece of town history."

"That's right. It's got everything one could want-interesting characters, illegal doings, money, greed, robbery and even a romance." Ida ticked the items off on her fingers.

"Really?" Lexy's brows shot up. "Do tell."

Ida leaned in, lowering her voice even though no one was in the shop to overhear her. "Well, you see, back in 1948 the Second Regional Bank here in town was robbed. By Brook Ridge Falls' very own band of gangsters."

"Brook Ridge Falls had gangsters?"

"Yep," Nans answered. "And they had cool names too ... like Midas Mulcahey' and The Bomb'."

"Anyway," Ida continued, "they made off with almost a million dollars in bills and gold bars."

"And there was a mysterious woman involved, too." Ruth winked.

"Almost like Bonnie and Clyde, except these guys got away with it," Helen added.

"They were never heard from again." Nans' green eyes danced mischievously over her cup of tea.

"Probably off spending the money," Ida said. "Don't you think that will make a great display for the historical commission table?"

Lexy nodded. "Sounds like fun."

"Of course, we still have more research to do, but we don't want to spend all our time on that when we have the murder of the skull to solve," Nans said.

Lexy looked out the window where the sewer workers were busy doing their job. "How is that going?"

"Ruth looked at the police records going way back, but didn't find any missing persons who haven't been located," Nans said. "So we don't have much to go on."

"Maybe the police have found out more about it since they went down into the sewers." Ruth looked at Lexy hopefully. "You could ask Jack."

"Sure, I can ask him tonight," Lexy said. "But, I think he said it's not a big priority, so I don't know if I'll be able to get any useful information."

"All the more reason for us to look into it ourselves," Nans said. "But we'd better hurry. If they're closing off all the entrances to the old sewer pipes with this new project, we may not have much time left until our access is cut off.

Chapter Seven.

The rest of the day was uneventful and not very profitable even though they did manage to get a handful of customers. Lexy immersed herself in perfecting the scone recipe and, by the time the day ended, she was more than ready to get out of the kitchen.

She'd made plans with Jack to meet at his house. There was still a lot of work to do before they could put it up for sale, so she grabbed some frosted brownies from the case and aimed her car toward The Burger Barn to pick up take-out before heading home.

Parking at her own house, she ran inside, her heart flooding with warmth at Sprinkles' enthusiastic greeting, which she wasn't exactly sure was for her or the white take-out bag full of burgers and fries.

"Hi, Sprinkles." Lexy put the box of brownies and take-out bag on the counter, and then bent down and ruffled the dog behind her ears while trying to dodge the pink tongue that insisted on licking Lexy's face. "We're going to go over to Jack's and eat, okay?"

Sprinkles spun in circles, and then ran to the back door. Lexy picked the white bag off the counter, opened the door and stepped out onto her frosty patio, then made her way across her back yard, through the fence and across Jack's back yard to his kitchen door.

Lexy gave a quick tap on the window and opened the door. The kitchen was empty, but the basement door stood ajar and Lexy could see the lights were on downstairs.

"Hello?" Lexy yelled down.

"Down here!" Jack's voice answered from below. Sprinkles let out a yelp then bounded down the stairs. Lexy put the takeout bag on the counter and followed.

Jack's house was small and, even though the basement ran the whole length of the house, it seemed smaller because of all the boxes, old furniture and piles of junk that were crammed into every inch of space. The low ceiling made it seem even smaller. A few bare bulbs had been placed in white ceramic sockets that hung from the ceiling to provide light that added to the cave-like feel. Lexy's lungs itched as she breathed in mildew, dust and cobwebs.

Jack stood in the middle of a pile of boxes, his shirt smudged with dirt. Sprinkles was busy sniffing around his feet.

"How on earth did you amass this much stuff?" Lexy gestured toward the towering piles. "You've only been living here for seven years."

Jack puffed out his cheeks. "Actually, most of it is from the previous owners. It was all here when I moved in."

Lexy picked her way toward him. "I remember Nans said they lived here since it was built in 1940."

"Yeah, they were a sweet old couple," Jack said. "They were going to senior living and didn't know what to do with all this stuff, so I told them just to leave it. Figured maybe I'd have a use for some of it someday."

Lexy peeked inside a box loaded with vintage turquoise kitchenware. "Jeez it's like a time capsule from the 1950s in here."

"Yeah, they saved everything." Jack stepped sideways and motioned to several piles of newspapers and magazines.

"Sheesh." Lexy bent over to examine one of the piles. "Hey, these are local papers from the 1940s ... I wonder if they have the papers from 1948."

"Feel free to take a look." Jack gestured to the pile before turning his attention back to the old tools he had been unpacking from a box.

Lexy squatted and flipped through the yellowed newspapers. Some of the pages were brittle and the edges flaked off in her fingers. The piles were stacked in chronological order, so it didn't take long for her to find the ones from 1948. She pulled them out of the stack.

"Can I take these for Nans?"

Jack looked up at her, his right brow rose a fraction of an inch. "For Nans? What is she up to now?"

"The ladies are doing some historical society project for the bicentennial and it has something to do with some big robbery that happened in 1948."

Jack shrugged. "Take whatever you want. It's all gotta go somewhere."

Lexy set the papers aside and wiped her dirty hands on her jeans. Looking around the basement at all the junk they had to go through made her feel overwhelmed. She needed food.

"Let's take a break and eat," she suggested. "I brought take-out from The Burger Barn and it's getting cold on your counter."

"Sounds good." Jack smiled at her. "But first ... I think you look a little too clean."

She squealed as he reached over to pull her close, his hands leaving dirty handprints on the sleeves of her shirt. He smudged his finger on her nose, then his warm lips descended on hers almost making her forget they were in the dirty, dingy, spider-filled basement.